Word of the Day

Healthy Stomach

Your Gut Is Your Second Brain

Your digestive tract is also intimately involved in some intensely emotional business: We rely upon our gut instinct to tell us the right thing to do. We have a gut reaction to people who offend or delight us. We do a gut check when facing a challenge and congratulate ourselves when we display the intestinal fortitude, or guts, to take it on.When you think about it, you wont be surprised to learn that your gut, or second brain, is synced up with your real brain. Just think about how a bout of intense fear or panic can liquefy your innards or, more commonly, when a cramp or brief wave of nausea alerts you to a nagging anxiety your mind had been working so hard to suppress. Theres a good reason your gut and your first brain communicate so seamlessly: Every class of neurochemical produced in the first brain is also produced in the second.